49 Held in Mirpur and Gazipur as Police Allege Sabotage Plot Behind Garment Workers’ Movement

Police have alleged planned sabotage behind the ongoing movement demanding a minimum monthly wage of Tk 30,000 for garment workers. Police say they have found the involvement of leaders and activists of the Awami League, whose activities have been banned, and its associate organisations in incidents of arson on police vehicles and boxes and attacks and vandalism in Mirpur in the capital and in Gazipur.

In these incidents, police arrested and detained 49 people in Dhaka and Gazipur on Sunday. Of them, 19 were detained from different areas of Mirpur. Eleven of those were detained by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch (DB), while thana police detained the remaining eight, said Hasan Mohammad Naser Rikabdar, deputy commissioner of the police's Mirpur division.

In Gazipur, 30 people were arrested, including nine leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate organisations, on allegations of instigating the workers' movement and being involved in violence.

DB police say local Awami League leaders and activists had planned to create violence in Mirpur by exploiting the workers' legitimate movement. A section of them had organised through online groups, and they also had plans for large-scale sabotage behind the movement.

Mohammad Rakib Khan, deputy commissioner of the DB's Mirpur division, said the detained persons are followers of former Mirpur MP Elias Molla, and several of them hold party posts. He claimed that Elias Molla's nephew Alif Molla organised more than a hundred people and sent them into the workers' movement, and that these people, acting together, set fire to police vehicles and carried out vandalism.

Meanwhile, a report by the state news agency BSS said that among those detained in Mirpur, 11 are leaders and activists of the Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League. They are not mainly workers of local garment factories; they had come from various districts and gathered in Mirpur to carry out sabotage under cover of the workers' movement. The BSS report said attempts are being made to divert the ordinary workers' movement to create panic among the public and an unstable situation in the country.

In a dawn raid across different areas of Kaliakair upazila in Gazipur, police arrested nine leaders and activists of the banned Awami League and its associate organisations on allegations of instigating the garment workers' movement and being involved in plans for vandalism and arson.

Police said the arrested are Yusuf Sikdar, office secretary of the banned Awami League's Kaliakair upazila unit; Sanowar Hossain, former general secretary of the Mouchak Union Sramik League; Ariful Hossain, former vice-president of the banned Chhatra League's Kaliakair upazila unit; Masum Mia, organising secretary of the Ward No. 9 Krishak League; Jubo League activist Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Mizan; and Awami League activists Saiful Islam, Mohammad Rasel, Saikat Sheikh and Mizanur Rahman.

Kaliakair Police Station officer-in-charge Shahidul Islam said the nine were arrested not for joining the workers' movement but on allegations of involvement in terrorist activities, as leaders and activists of the banned Awami League and its associate organisations.

In addition, the Industrial Police detained nine people and the Gazipur Metropolitan Police detained 13, according to police sources concerned.

Meanwhile, Industrial Police chief and Additional Inspector General Gazi Jasim Uddin expressed concern that a third party may be fuelling the garment workers' movement. He told BSS that the government has already formed a wage board considering the workers' demands. Police had earlier tried to calm the protesting workers and had informed them of the wage board initiative. As violent protests continued in various areas despite this, it is suspected that a third party is behind it.

The Industrial Police chief also said police have shown maximum patience to control the situation and ensure the safety of workers and factories, and that minimum force has been used to deal with violent situations.